Education, treatment see as key in ending opioid crisis

Ron Leonardi @ETNLeonardi

Wednesday

Apr 11, 2018 at 8:47 PMApr 11, 2018 at 8:47 PM

Erie County drug-related deaths so far this year are ahead of last year's pace.

Education and successful treatment, no matter how slow change may come, are keys to combating the heroin and opioid crisis that threatens the nation and northwestern Pennsylvania, Erie County District Attorney Jack Daneri told an audience Wednesday night at Harbor Creek High School

Daneri was among five panelists who discussed possible remedies and solutions in dealing with society's rampant use of heroin, fentanyl and other opioids.

"We can keep arresting people and we will, but as long there is someone behind this addict, and there's a another addict behind them, then the problem won't go away,'' Daneri said. "How do we stop it at its root, which is to change whatever it is that leads people to such addictions and, ultimately, death. We need to stop that, and that's education, which is a big project. Then there's successful treatment once someone is addicted. We know they're bound to fail a few times, but we need to stop them from failing that last time and get them back on the right track."

A crowd of about 250 attended Wednesday night's two-hour symposium, titled "The Heroin Epidemic: A Community Conversation."

"It's certainly no solace to us in Erie to say the rest of the country is the same or worse,'' Daneri said. "That doesn't do us any good here. We need to address what we have here. It's alarming, it's been increasing and, according to the experts, there's no significant decrease on the horizon. Statistics-wise, it does not look there will be an immediate change. We'll keep putting the tools to the effort from social services, law enforcement, education, schools and hope for a change. As slow as it may come, it's still worth coming."

In 2008, drug-related deaths in Erie County totaled 28. There were a record 124 drug-related deaths in Erie County in 2017, a significant increase over the previous record of 85 drug-related deaths in 2016, according to Cook.

"We're seeing the numbers come up at an overpredictable rate, which is troubling to us," Cook said. "When you jump in 10 years from 28 deaths to 124 drug-related deaths, that's pretty significant. I don't know what the answers are and I don't know why that happened. I do know from talking to other coroners in Pennsylvania and from across the country, the opioid problem is as bad, if not worse, in other places, and from what we're being told, it's even worse in Europe than it is in the United States.''

As of Wednesday, there had been 26 drug-related deaths in Erie County this year, Cook said.

"Actually, we're a little bit ahead of the pace that we had last year, Cook said.

Ron Leonardi can be reached at 870-1680 or by e-mail. Follow him on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/ETNLeonardi.

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